Trader Joe’s revamps health coverage for part-timers

The company, which has two Kansas City area locations and is known for its quirky marketing and discount products, is ending health care coverage for part-time workers next year, meaning those who average less than 30 hours a week, according to the report.

Supermarket chain Trader Joe’s is the latest company to revamp its employee health insurance plans as a result of the Affordable Care Act, according to a report in the Huffington Post.

The company, which has two Kansas City area locations and is known for its quirky marketing and discount products, is ending health care coverage for part-time workers next year, meaning those who average less than 30 hours a week, according to the report.

In exchange, it will give these workers $500 in January and guidance on buying coverage through the health insurance marketplaces opening up next month, the online news service said, citing an internal Trader Joe’s memo. The company will continue offering health coverage to full-time workers, or those that work more than 30 hours a week.

Trader Joe’s chief executive Dan Bane reportedly said in the memo that he does not expect the change to seriously affect many workers, as the company’s payment combined with tax credit subsidies that lower-income workers will be eligible for should help defray the cost of purchasing insurance.

"Depending on income you may earn outside of Trader Joe's we believe that with the $500 from Trader Joe's and the tax credits available under the ACA, many of you should be able to obtain health care coverage at very little if any net cost to you," the Huffington Post said Bane wrote in the memo.